For CdM: Bullshit jobs

[Admiral Yi]

:occupyrapidresponse:

[CountDeMoney]

I was doing volunteer work all day.  You'd appreciate it, Yi:  it's completely free labor.  Absolutely no nasty little inconveniences involved that irk the shit out of you, like compensation.

[Ed Anger]

Speaking of volunteer work, I haven't had to check on old people so far due to the lack of heat this summer. Man, I stick to the plastic covers on the couch.

[mongers]

Speaking of volunteer work, I haven't had to check on old people so far due to the lack of heat this summer. Man, I stick to the plastic covers on the couch.

I visited one of my regulars on the way home today, he's had like 3 heart attacks in the last 18 months, the last one being very serious, only saved by some real high-tech.   

Now he's like, "Hi you've only just caught me, just got in from driving 250 miles from up north in about 4 hours".  I think I can say he's on the mend. 

[Berkut]

Just that they don't actually *produce* anything.

berkut - what do you mean by produce something?
Defined narrowly, only a very small percentage of workers are producing things.

I agree. I think this was kind of a shitty use of language on the writers part - he is using a very narrow definition of the term "produce" and then implying that anyone who doesn't produce in that narrow sense is somehow a parasite in a more general sense.

[Jacob]

I was doing volunteer work all day.  You'd appreciate it, Yi:  it's completely free labor.  Absolutely no nasty little inconveniences involved that irk the shit out of you, like compensation.

Volunteer labour also removes the need for social services, so it's a two-fer.

[MadImmortalMan]

If you're doing volunteer stuff anyhow, maybe do something like taskrabbit.

[mongers]

Some here might not find this particularly germane, but I was reading about how Chinese high-tech start ups operate, often they work in loose groups, where work is traded informally as almost favours, so one company will say if you can manufacture that part of the casing we'll do this part of your motherboard or paint the finished casing/ do the packaging for it.   

The analysis was because this was done informally, based on trust and reputation, then the companies were nibble and able to bring  new products to market noticeably quicker than traditional formally constrained, paperwork bound Western/established companies.

I'd guess lawyers have less of a role to play in the above process than in the Apple/Samsung universe.

[alfred russel]

Aren't you describing the rule by lawyers, rather than the rule of law?

Presumably if the body of laws were written well enough that the majority of people could understand the vast majority of them, then we'd need far fewer lawyers.   

Hence the rule of law could be seen, understood and appreciated, rather than the light of justice being filtered through mud.   

A great deal of ink has been spilled over the last 200 years or so regarding the Rule of Law and how certainty in the law can best be achieved so that it is more understandable and predictable.  But as society and the interactions within society (both commercial and private) become more complex it is difficult for me to imagine a body of laws, no matter how well they might be drafted, that do not require a group of specialist to advise people who dont have the time or inclination to learn all of the law themselves.

I think most people who have reflected on it realize that lawyers are a necessary and important part of society. However, some successful modern societies are much less litigious and have fewer lawyers than the US (and Canada for that matter), which calls into question whether our legal structure could be more efficient.

[Ed Anger]

If you're doing volunteer stuff anyhow, maybe do something like taskrabbit.

Can I get a chick to wash my balls?

[Legbiter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2_Yi-1Ryf4

[garbon]

I need to watch Office Space again. Feeling that right now.

[ulmont]

there are a few problems with lawyers, namely that they don't seem to attach any value to the truth.  The objective of a lawyer, and what the law asks of a lawyer is to represent the interest of his client.  End of the line.  Lying is considered a good way to achieve your objective.

You're wrong. 

In the course of representing a client a lawyer shall not knowingly:

make a false statement of material fact or law to a third person; or
fail to disclose a material fact to a third person when disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by a client, unless disclosure is prohibited by Rule 1.6. [preserving client confidentiality, which has its own exceptions]

A lawyer shall not knowingly:
make a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal;
fail to disclose a material fact to a tribunal when disclosure is necessary to avoid assisting a criminal or fraudulent act by the client;
fail to disclose to the tribunal legal authority in the controlling jurisdiction known to the lawyer to be directly adverse to the position of the client and not disclosed by opposing counsel; or
offer evidence that the lawyer knows to be false. If a lawyer has offered material evidence and comes to know of its falsity, the lawyer shall take reasonable remedial measures.

The zealous advocacy portions you refer to are severely qualified.

[Berkut]

THe thing is ulmont, the perception is that those technical restrictions aside, the reality of legal practice in the corporate world is that those restrictions are not meaningful, nor are they typically of great concern.

Perhaps that perception is flawed - I certainly don't have any first hand knowledge - but that is certainly the impression I have from what limited dealing with lawyers in the business I've been associated with. Sure, they aren't supposed to come right out and lie, but that leaves a rather immense amount of room for plenty of dishonesty or simply omitting the truth.

Lets be honest ourselves - you can be astoundingly dishonest while never breaking the technical restriction of "make a false statement of material fact". And who enforces such a rule in any case?

[PDH]

I'm not a lawyer, but I think I can say with agreement from everyone who is a real person that all lawyers should be shot and their fetid carcasses left to rot in the sun.